Introduction:
For a “peaceful Europe”, the remarkable cooperation among European countries in the aftermath of the World War II was initiated (Europa, 1995-2010a). Over half a century of what is known as European integration process, the initiation has grown from six founding countries as the European Coal and Steel Community to now being a fully-grown power, recognized as the European Union, with 27 countries as members (extending over an area of more than 4 million square kilometers), almost half a billion in population, and 12,276.2 billion euro in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007 (Europa, 1995-2010b). This is obviously a success story, and the European Union is seen by many as one of mankind’s best creations.
So how have such tremendous growth and notable achievements come into being? What paths have these united countries taken to arrive at where they are today? As believed by many, one of the key contributing factors that have given rise to all these fruitful results is their understanding of the indispensability and their pursuit of convergence and diversity in their societies. Accordingly, the process of the European integration has been designed and adjusted in a way that the maintenance and co-existence of these two aspects can be ensured—historically, politically, and economically. This realization comes along with another question. Why is there such need for convergence and diversity in building the European societies?
Therefore, this paper is aimed to answer just that, together with the introduction and discussion of the opportunities and challenges presented to the EU in its operation in this globalizing world.
Convergence and diversity:
Before going deeper into the details that lay out the reasons behind the EU’s continuous attempts in seeking for convergence and diversity within its integrating process, these two main words should be clearly defined and understood. More than their obvious and literal meanings as illustrated in the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Woodford, K. & Jackson, 2003), in which ‘convergence’ is the noun of the verb ‘converge’ defined as “gradually becoming similar (of interests/opinions/ ideas)” and ‘diversity’ means “when many different types of things or people are included in something,” what do these words mean in the very contexts of the EU?
Diversity, in its general contexts, refers to the state or the quality of being diverse, composed of many aspects of different types. This quality can be easily reflected in the European societies. The fact that this union is made up of 27 countries and 87 peoples (Pan and Pfeil, 2004, as cited in Wikipedia) (with 20 official languages and approximately 150 minority and regional languages, according to a publication “Many tongues, one family” by the European Commission in July 2004), explains a lot. As roots and languages are just part of cultures, that there are this many peoples and many languages tells that there are also varieties in terms of traditions, values, way of thinking, way of living, etc.—the components that are attached and symbolic of different cultures. These differences represent diversity in Europe.
Regarding ‘convergence’, according to Professor Bekemans (2005), in one of his writings about “The Idea and Practice of Europe in a Globalising World: Reality and Responsibility,” it was stated that:
“…the historic and recent development of the current European integration process is an ongoing search for equilibrium between integration and cohesion on the one hand, and maintenance of diversity and regional and cultural identity on the other hand, within certain governance structures and institutions.”
It can be seen that this statement is more or less under the same notion as this essay. And from that, the term ‘convergence’—putting the points about diversity aside—can be better interpreted as “integration and cohesion.” In the EU, despite its such-a-diverse status, there needs to be something that those aspects of differences share; there needs to be common grounds, where ideas and interests meet and converge, becoming compatible with one another, so that everyone is glued together and this diversity can grow as one in unity.
Convergence and Diversity in the European Union in Historical, Political, and Economic Perspectives
To begin with, let us look at the brief history of the European Union, from even before its emergence in 1950 as the European Coal and Steel Community to the very present day’s European Union.
Although this cooperation started to take actual shape just after the end of the bloody World War II, the initial concept was introduced shortly after the First World War In 1929, French Prime Minister, Aristide Briand, mentioned the idea of “federation of European nations,” where “solidarity and … pursuit of economic prosperity and political and social cooperation” could be nurtured, in his speech to the Assembly of the League of Nations (Bekemans, 2009). The idea was well-received, but because of the sudden economic depression, it failed and was forgotten.
Then after the massively-destructive Second World War, with the determination never to allow such catastrophe to ever happen again, the first step was taken by the Western European countries; the Council of Europe was formed in 1949. On May 9, 1950, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands agreed to go for further collaboration and the plan was presented by the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. As a result, the European Coal and Steel Community was formed by the Treaty of Paris in 1951, with one of the main purposes being to boost economic developments among member countries. Following the success of this agreements, further were done so that ongoing problems were addressed and more improvements could be ensured, with one treaty and agreement after the others being signed—the Treaties of Rome (1957), the Single European Act (1986), the Treaty of the European Union (1992), the Schengen Agreement (1995), the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), and the Treaty of Nice (2000).
These ongoing developments were also accompanied by ongoing enlargements. The first expansion was in 1973, when the union was joined by Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom in 1973, followed by Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986, Austria, Finland, and Sweden in 1995, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia in 2004, and Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. Today, in 2010, the European Union remains of 27 member countries, with currently 3 candidate countries—Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey. This growth comes along with a broader diversity being built up. To respond to this change and to maintain the validity where all of this growing diversity converges, the founding treaties of the EU have been amended for several times.
To see how convergence and diversity play part in this history, it is necessary to look at the initial causes for all these to take place. It was the aftermath of wars that finally brought all of these countries together. But if examining it closer, wars were brought up by what was described by Professor Bekemans as “aggressive nationalisms.” People were just so ethnocentric towards others of differences, whether in colors, religions, nationalities etc.; they were looking at each other with hatred, fear, and intention to destroy. In other words, differences, or diversity, were not valued and appreciated but feared, and that brought clashes and wars. Under this realization, adjustments were made; actions were taken so that common grounds, where everyone is more or less equally benefited, can be found. That is why this European cooperation was created. The European Coal and Steel Community was designed in a way that heavy industries of coal and steel could be run under a management common to all parties involved and at the same time, no wars could be declared and waged against one another. That was the first major step of integration, of convergence, despite the prominent existence of the diversity.
This search for convergence and diversity does not figure only historically but also politically. It is all about politics when governments of countries in the European Union give up some of their power to the supranational government. Nowadays, politically, the EU represents a multi-level system, with power shared across three main levels—supranational, national, and sub-national. At the supranational level, the main institutions are European Commission, The Council of the EU, European Parliament, European Council, and European Court of Justice. At this level, the chief decision-making power rests in the hand of the Council of the EU, whose members are representatives from the member states. And at the national level, there exist member-state governments, which have the sovereignty and independence to govern their own countries, although some of the power needs to be shared at the supranational level. Finally, under the practice of decentralization and subsidiarity, smaller local governments (sub-national/local level) also figure, where problem-solving and management in particular territories (namely, cities, provinces, regions etc) are delegated to their local governments.
However, this establishment has not always been the way it is today; it was only after years of rigorous discussion, reflection, sacrifice and modifications that all the parties involved could overcome their differences and agree upon the current formula. This organizational structure offers a clear picture of how the governances of the 27 member states converge at the supranational level—the level that “features ideological – differing political groupings from across the member states – and national differences – nationality of the [members] from the individual member states” (Schumann, n.d.). This is the way it is so that instead of having no common government and thus moving at an unmanageable pace in different directions, all member states can altogether advance as a group in one direction.
From economic perspectives, on the other hand, the European Union has strived to bring economic prosperity to its citizens. Over the past years, it is in the Union’s main objectives “to break down the barriers between the EU’s national economies and to create a single market where goods, people, money and services can move around freely” (Europa, 1995-2010b). To make all these possible, many policies have been ratified and practiced. To putting the first remarkable economic endeavour into focus again, the European Coal and Steel Community was established among the 6 founding countries, economically so as to build a single market across the Community and to bring back vitality and life to the entire European economy. A few other later events that were designed to accommodate the growing diversity, as more and more countries joined the Union, and to guarantee its economic advancement, were as: the Treaties of Rome (1957) to create the European Economic Community (the idea for free movement of people, goods, and services across all borders) and the European Atomic Energy Community, the introduction of the European currency (Euro) for free circulation of capitals by the Economic and Monetary Union, and the creation of a Cohesion Fund (1994), from which less developed member states can received financial aids to work in various fields such as environment and transportation infrastructure. These, once again, show the effort of the EU of seeking for “…economic cohesion among the diverse regions and countries of the community” (Bekemans, 2009, p. 43).
Opportunities in the emerging multi-polar world:
In all its endeavours of search between convergence and diversity, not only can wars be prevented, but the EU as a whole and each participating country have also enjoyed and reaped fruitful results from a lot of opportunities inherent in such cooperation. Now let us study a few of those main opportunities.
First and foremost, this process has brought this region, this continent, as well as the world, long-lived peace. Although it has sometimes been a rough ride, not smooth all the way through, it has been an upward trend. To this point in time, people of Europe are enjoying a peaceful state of living, free from wars and full of assurance of no more wars as destructive as the World Wars ever again. This cooperation, which grew out of the intention to live together despite differences, allowed former enemies (for example, France and Germany) to work together in harmony, benefiting both themselves and all parties involved, reunited separate nations (the fall of Berlin Wall, for instance), and has provided opportunities for many countries that were recently out of communist governments and/or that are poorer and less developed to join the pack and prosper. With such opportunities and development, the European Union has been growing as one big family and as one of the prominent power in today’s world.
In addition, from this initiation, plus the peace that it brings about, the economy of Europe flourishes. “Trade between EU countries has greatly increased and, at the same time, the EU has become a major world trading power” (Europa, 1995-2010b). The Gross Domestic Products of the EU has been shifting progressively, and with the admission of new member countries in 2004, it is now higher than that of the United States. With only 7% of the world’s population, the EU’s trade with the rest of the world makes up approximately a fifth of global exports and imports. Also, the creation of a single market, “the EU’s greatest achievement,” has made the world such a better place for its citizens, bringing price reductions among products and services, especially in sectors such as air travel and communication.
So far, the process of integration has served so well its initial purpose of bringing economic prosperity to the citizens of the EU. People in the EU today live obviously more wealthy and healthy lives, which are ones among the wealthiest in the world, although this quality of lives does somehow vary from countries to countries. According to the Eurostat, citizens of Luxembourg currently enjoy the highest GDP per capita (58,900 euro in 2005), while the lowest is of people in Bulgarian (7,900 euro per inhabitant). Though this shows quite a gap between the rich and the poor members, it is among the Union’s major plans to narrow it down so that good quality of life is not just exclusive in some member countries. In other words, from the operation of the European Union, large member states keep receiving benefits, maintaining and even improving its status of wealth and health, while new and smaller members have little, if not nothing, to lose, but a lot to gain to lift themselves up towards high economic prosperity comparable to those of other members.
Challenges in the emerging multi-polar world:
Although with these obvious opportunities and benefits, it is undeniable that this process of integration in the face of diversity has been very difficult and demanding, introducing a lot of challenges to the EU and everyone involved. According to an article entitled The Idea and Practice of Europe in a globalising world: Reality and Responsibility by Professor Bekemans, a Jean Monnet Professor of European Interdisciplinary Studies, all those challenges are categorized in 5 major items, namely: globalization, Europeanisation, identity and specificity, culture, and perception.
First, because of the prevailing and powerful existence of globalization, “the great challenge is to look for governance structures which both create zones of common interests and shared values, as structures for civilised confrontation [that] should offer economic, social and cultural well-being with a guarantee of internal and external solidarity as accessibility for all to the opportunities and advantages of globlisation” (Bekemans, 2005). This is the case because, for one aspect, globalization gives rise to various cultural tensions. For example, when ones are put in a situation where they get in contact with unfamiliar cultures, which is easily made possible by globalization, without or lack of cultural relativism, cultural understanding and respect for differences, this can leads to discomforts and offences to both sides, distrust against each other’s cultures, and increased possibility of clashes and confrontations. To manage such tensions, highly-effective global political governance is needed.
Further, Europeanisation has raised another fundamental challenge to this integration process, which is “…how the EU.., based on a common cultural heritage, common historical experiences, common and shared values, can maintain its specificity and particularity”, (Bekemans, 2005). The process of Europeanisation “shows clear internal and external tensions which endanger the specificity of the European integration process, the European unity in diversity.” For example, there is a big societal debate about “values and vision of how the individual is related to his surroundings,” which shows that because of sticking to “the functional integration thinking and acting, based on the principle of rationality, specialisation, competition, etc.,” although economic prosperity results, “its underlying value patterns are more and more pressured for the lack of person-driven answers in a complex institutional structure.”
In addition, the matter of identity and specificity represents another challenge. According to Professor Bekemans (2005), the identity of the EU today is getting more “complex” and is somehow distorted by current events in the globalizing world such as greater ability of people to move freely across border and “growing individualisation and vagueness of the moral norms/ethics within society.” Now as Europe is Europeanizing and globalizing, it is now between a European identity versus the multiple identities of different peoples of different localities, regions, and nations.
Another challenge is related with culture. Apart from points concerning culture raised earlier with globalization, differences and diversity presented by various cultures in the EU itself can be really challenging to handle. Again, in order for the integration process to move forward in fruitful manners, converging points must be built up, which everyone consider acceptable and can equally benefit from, and to discover that convergence is never an easy process. An example of this is the struggle of the UK to deal with its multiculturalism with the country experiencing such hostile events as riots in April and July, 1981, terrorist bombing in London in 2005, and some aggressive acts against ethnic people. More recent examples are as: ban of kebabs and foreign food in cities in Italy and ban of the building of minarets in Switzerland, which has received both criticism and support. These issues have all arisen out of differences in ideology, religions, traditions, viewpoints and so on, which are all elements of cultures.
Finally, one of the main challenges lies in the perception of the people in Europe. “There exists a stereotype perception of the EU as a slow, non transparent administration with complex decision-making procedures, which shows a lack of radiation, determination and vigour at vital moments of political decision-making” (Bekemans, 2005). Apparently, there has not been as much respect and trust on the Union from its citizens as there should be, and because of this, there has been less participation and involvement in the integration process from them, as indicated by statistics collected recently telling that less than half of the population went to the European elections.
Reflection and Conclusion:
Reflecting upon what have been put out as arguments for this essay again, it seems that all the difficulties, obstacles and problems arise out of the diversity rooted in Europe itself. If we ask, why there were wars, why clashes and confrontations occur, why the integration process of the EU has been so challenging, and so on? The conflicts of interests, and (intolerance towards) differences in ideology, races, religions, etc., which are elements of the diversity, appear to answer all the above. So why was such cooperation as the European Union initiated and carried out in the first place? And like what aforementioned, it was to avoid destructive wars. Therefore, a conclusion can be drawn that either the European countries took up the initiation, handle the diversity with care and attention, and live with peace or they would end up being destroyed by wars all over again. For the former to happen, convergence is the key.
Indeed, for a diverse society to strive there is a need for a strong common ground of shared values, equal benefits and opportunities, for tolerance, understanding, and respect towards each other’s differences, and for solidarity among everyone. Even though in order to satisfy this need the EU have to stand in the face of challenges that come with countless hard-to-solve and controversial issues in various areas, as each one is discussed, debated, and finally dealt with, the Union moves forwards –the success that benefits not only the member-states and their citizens, but also the entire world, in which the EU remains as one of the most important powers.
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